Taylor Swift and her Swifties were everywhere in Melbourne over the weekend and although I’m long over the hype it seems that Swifties just cannot get enough of their pop icon.
Nearly 300,000 Swifties attended the MCG over three nights (inside — with approximately 40 to 50,000 outside “Taylor-gating” each night) and as such it should come as no surprise that around 35 terabytes of data was used in and around the MCG during concert times.
This impressive figure is just for the Telstra network – there is no word on Optus and Vodafone just yet, but you can be sure it would have been a lot too.
For reference, 35 terabytes is the equivalent of 15,500 hours of video content — so approximately a little over 5,000 hours of video per concert! With this much data you could stream the Eras Tour Concert Film on repeat for 1.7 years straight.
It may be a sign of the times or just everyone wanting to stream and share their Taylor experience with the world, but the data used was nearly twice the amount of data used than the next biggest concert at the MCG.
Telstra was able to drill down into the data usage and figure out the most popular moments of the concerts. Interestingly the peak data usage was immediately prior to Taylor Swift going on stage! At the end of the 1989 era data usage decreased — Telstra say it was because it was time for surprise songs so everyone was paying attention — it could also be because their phone batteries were Taylored out but that’s my cynical inner voice.
Of course, Sydney lacks a stadium as impressive as the MCG so we shouldn’t expect to see as much data per concert there but with four concerts in total you can be sure the overall figure will still be high!
To support the Swifties in Sydney Telstra is rolling out their Cell-on-Wheels to boost bandwidth in the area so more users can use the network simultaneously — wonder why that was not required in Melbourne?
Those inside the Accor Stadium will also be able to enjoy improved 5G service with the upgraded 5G antenna system in the stadium — it will be interesting to see if these improvements allow Sydney-siders to match Melbourne’s data usage numbers.
Telstra is jumping on the Taylor Swift hype train and has published tips to help you prepare for the long concert performances. Sydney-siders, prepare yourself for the entire Taylor Swift experience, the likes of which you’ve never seen before.
